SK Town employee stole property records for personal gain: report

An employee of the City of Hafford in Saskatchewan was found rummaging through public records to use the information for personal use, according to a report from the county’s privacy commissioner.

In a June 29 ruling, Saskatchewan privacy commissioner Ronald Kruzeniski called snooping the worst form of privacy violation.

“My office considers employee file snooping to be the most egregious form of privacy violation,” Kruzeniski wrote in his ruling, first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

He said it was clear the employee was out for personal gain by negotiating a lower purchase price for a home.

The incident involved a Town of Hafford administrative assistant who improperly accessed the property files of three people for personal use. The information in the property files included names, contact details, and information about their property, such as the date of construction and purchase price.

Mr. Kruzeniski’s report included two text messages dated October 27, 2022, from the unnamed city employee to the complainant, who attempted to negotiate the price of a house.

• 9:13 pm: “And sellers rarely get their highest asking price. Even the [name removed] house came down [amount removed] grand of the original asking price on the posters.
• 10:23 pm: I also know you bought it [the house] for a song. You would make [amount removed] great if i paid you [amount removed]. I realize you have done some renovations but even if you have put [amount removed] in it you would still walk away with a decent profit.

The affected person filed a complaint with the City of Hafford in a letter dated December 8, 2022. The City replied by letter that the complaint had been received, adding that it was being taken seriously and would be investigated. On 14 January 2023, the complainant also emailed the office of Saskatchewan’s Information and Privacy Commissioner.

On January 25, 2023, the city confirmed in a letter to Mr. Kruzeniski’s office that the employee had requested property records. And by March 2, 2023, the city had sent the results of its own internal investigation to his office.

The city said that while the information gathered included home sales prices, building permits, lines of credit and mortgages, there was no real risk that significant harm would occur “and therefore the breach did not meet the threshold to notify the individuals set,” the city said. wrote.

Commissioner Kruzeniski, however, took a different view.

“The employee used the information to try to negotiate a lower purchase price,” Mr. Kruzeniski. “This is incredibly intrusive.”

“All affected individuals deserve to know that this employee has been digging into their property files for personal gain,” Mr. Kruzeniski. “Sniffing is a harmful and intrusive activity that undermines the trust citizens have in a local government’s ability to maintain the confidentiality of their information.”

In his June 29 report, Kruzinski ruled that the city’s investigation was adequate and that the city had taken appropriate steps to mitigate the invasion of privacy. However, he also believed the city should have notified all three affected individuals, not just the one who made the initial complaint.

He also felt that “the city has taken some adequate measures to prevent prospective employees from sniffing out privacy breaches, but could take some additional steps.”

No one has been fired in the Hafford case. The suspect was punished with a disciplinary letter.

Hafford is a town of just over 400 people located about an hour northwest of Saskatoon.